BASEBALL; After Losing Karstens to Broken Leg, Yanks Get a Lift From Igawa

By TYLER KEPNER

Published: April 29, 2007

It is the ultimate sign of Manager Joe Torre's satisfaction, bestowed only on pitchers whose work far exceeds expectation. When Torre claps on his way to remove a pitcher, he is especially proud.

Torre clapped twice as he greeted Kei Igawa in the seventh inning yesterday at Yankee Stadium. Banished to the bullpen, pressed into emergency duty and facing the first-place Boston Red Sox, Igawa was a revelation.

After a line drive broke Jeff Karstens' leg in the first inning, Igawa worked six shutout innings, guiding the Yankees to a 3-1 victory that snapped a seven-game losing streak. The game ended with the first save of the season for Mariano Rivera, and, presumably, with a deep breath from a gurgling volcano in Tampa, Fla.

George Steinbrenner, the principal owner, has been growing increasingly anxious with his team's April slump. Steinbrenner is again considering firing Torre, whose contract expires after this season. The prospect of more embarrassing losses this weekend, like the one on Friday, made Torre's future tenuous.

But the Yankees played a clean game this time, led by Igawa, who allowed two hits and four walks and pitched into the seventh. Kyle Farnsworth navigated a tense eighth inning with two strikeouts, and Rivera survived a leadoff single in the ninth, challenging hitters again with 95 mile-an-hour heat.

''Igawa was outstanding,'' Rivera said. ''He picked us up. Today was a team concept. Igawa pitched tremendously, and the bullpen followed. Definitely, we needed the win. We went out there fighting today, fighting with everything we've got. Thank God we were able to win.''

Igawa was the Yankees' consolation prize in the international pitching market last winter. After the Red Sox dwarfed the Yankees' $33 million bid for the negotiating rights to Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Yankees won Igawa's rights for $26 million, then signed him for five years and $20 million.

Yet Torre soured quickly on Igawa, who sandwiched two solid starts between two poor ones. After Igawa's erratic start on Monday in Tampa Bay, Torre picked Karstens to start over him.

But Julio Lugo drove the game's first pitch off Karstens' right leg, just below the knee. Karstens went down immediately -- Andy Pettitte told him it looked as if a sniper had hit him -- and Torre, the infielders and the trainer quickly surrounded him.

''I thought I was going to be able to pitch on it,'' said Karstens, who faced only one more hitter. ''I come to find out it was cracked. I don't know if it would have been the best idea.''

Karstens was taken to the hospital, where X-rays showed a fractured fibula. He was placed on the disabled list, but he will not need an operation. The Yankees' doctor, Stuart Hershon, said Karstens would pitch again this season.

Torre said Igawa would take over his spot in the rotation, which seemed obvious after such an impressive performance. Igawa had worked in the bullpen on Thursday with the pitching coach, Ron Guidry, who urged him to learn the tendencies of major league hitters.

Igawa had said he hoped to pitch as aggressively as he did in Japan, but he needed to command his fastball better. He suggested to Guidry that he pitch only from the stretch, to simplify his mechanics and make his delivery more compact.

''I feel like I have better control from the stretch,'' Igawa said through an interpreter. He added later: ''Today, my mentality was to get one batter at a time. That's why I stayed in the stretch.''

His most important hitter might have been his first. Igawa entered the game with runners at first and second and no outs, facing David Ortiz. It seemed to be a mismatch, but Ortiz grounded to second for a double play. He did so again in the third inning.

Igawa threw a first-pitch strike to 11 of 14 hitters in one stretch, with fastballs reaching 92 m.p.h. That set up a hard slider he used for strikeouts against Manny Ram?z and J. D. Drew in the fourth inning.

The game was scoreless then, but after Hideki Matsui walked with one out in the bottom half of the fourth, Jorge Posada lifted a homer to right off Tim Wakefield to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.

The Yankees have regularly given back leads, often in the other team's next at-bat. They led in six of the seven games on their losing streak. But Igawa made this lead stand with a 1-2-3 fifth inning, and the offense noticed.

''We got that big shut-down inning after we scored the runs, which we really needed,'' Jason Giambi said.

Derek Jeter, who was 3 for 3, had said Friday that the Yankees would learn a lot about themselves from the bad times. So what did he learn from this game?

Jeter smiled. ''That Kei can pitch,'' he said.

INSIDE PITCH

Center fielder Johnny Damon will see a chiropractor near his home in Orlando, Fla., on tomorrow's off day. Damon has been playing with a bad back. ''It only hurts when I stand,'' he said.

Photos: Kei Igawa replaced starter Jeff Karstens in the first after Karstens was hit by a batted ball. Igawa threw six shutout innings. At right, Coco Crisp after striking out against Kyle Farnsworth in the eighth.; Joe Torre, right, attending to Karstens, who sustained a broken leg after being hit by a line drive by Julio Lugo on the first pitch of the game. (Photographs by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)